Hello Everyone,
How are things? This week has been very busy. It started Monday with a trip to Georgetown, or "town", as it is known here. We were a bit nervous to roam around the place by ourselves, but it had to be done. We had to go to the Suriname Embassy to get visas for our upcoming trip to Suriname. That whole process was surprisingly simple. While we were there, we treated ourselves to some of the nicer things "town" offers. You see, in Georgetown, you can find places and things that remind you of home. A lot of businesses and restaurants are air conditioned. They even have a mall. It is identical to the Galleria mall in Roseville. Granite floors, Miley Cyrus blasting and expensive stores. The expensive store was O Navy Store. Not Old Navy, O Navy. True they had mainly Old Navy clothes, but at three times the cost as in the states. (And if you didn't know, I was being sarcastic about the mall being the same as the Galleria.) We went to the Oasis Cafe for lunch. It feels like a coffee shop back home. It has a coffee bar, offering cappuccinos and other drinks and pastries. There were a ton of white people eating and hanging out using the free wi-fi. The food was okay. Jaide thoroughly enjoyed her cappuccino, but the best was the passion fruit cheesecake. It was so incredibly wonderful! Somehow they made the passion fruit seeds edible. After that, we went to Nigel's Supermarket, which seems to cater to the foreigners living in Guyana. The store has more things that we have in the states, but you're going to pay for it. The highlight of the trip to Nigel's was that we got sour cream. OH MAN! Did it make our burritos mind blowing! After that, we picked up our visas and headed home. A successful trip to "town", with no problems. So we thought. Then we discovered that our camera had been stolen in "town." BLERG! Thus the no pictures on the blog. So you have to use your mind's eye to see us madly devouring a cheesecake.
We also have some guests staying with us for a little bit right now. A really fun and nice couple, Travis & Kristin Winzel. They are from Spokane, Washington. They found out the evening before they were coming to Rosignol, that the house they were planning on renting ended up not working out. So, they are staying with us until they find a place. We've been having fun playing games and sharing the cooking. Also, Travis found some delicious chocolate and can make homemade Bailey's.
Yesterday, we went with a group of us went by truck to an area that Jehovah's Witnesses are not able to visit very often. All together, there was 41 of us. You can imagine the people's faces as they see a cane-cutting truck pull up with 41 well dressed men, women, and children, instead of 60 smelly cane cutters smashed into it. We were separated into 4 teams and dropped in different areas and went to work. The goal was to get to all the houses in our area, share a brief scripture and leave a Watchtower and Awake magazine. If someone wanted to know more, or had questions, we would take down their name and give it to the Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses that is closest to them. It was super hot, but a fun, albeit confusing day. You can imagine trying to organize 41 people.
Also yesterday, I almost had a bottle blow up in my face. I was burning our trash pile and I threw an empty bottle on it. It had been on the coals for a few minutes when I bent down to grab a stick about two feet away from the fire and, BOOOM! The bottle exploded. I felt the pressure from the explosion in my ear, felt dazed immediately and heard pieces hitting things all around me, including landing on the roof of our house, which is a good 40 feet away and two stories high. Jaide's first thought was "Oh no, his beautiful face!" Thankfully I did not get hit. Dazed and confused, yes. Hit, no. Happily, we amused the neighbor, who gave me a enormous shout out of appreciation for the loud explosion.
Back by popular demand, Guyanese word of the day. Todays word: Bad. It can be used to mean good and bad. Its not like how sometimes we use bad to mean something is cool. Here is a example: "The wind is strong bad", "your talk was good bad", " he is funny bad." I hope you all start adding this new meaning to your vocabulary.
Love,
G&J
